Malayeen was born from Yassin and Haber's love for the music of quintessential Egyptian guitarist Omar Khorshid, and their desire to create a contemporary trio that would study, revisit and modernize his music, and bring it full circle into the 21st century.

Master percussionist Khaled Yassine was added to the project at a later phase, creating in the process a Lebanese experimental “supergroup” of sorts. The final result makes for an original and unique update of Khorshid & belly dancing inspired songs from the past. Over the course of 7 compositions, appropriately named after Khorshid and famous belly dancers from the Arabic diaspora, the three musicians' varied backgrounds and techniques collide and coalesce in an experimental yet magical fashion, not actually playing Khorshid's music, but inspiring themselves from the cult guitarist's genius to create something completely new, modern and unexpected.

A unique LP featuring the combined talents by key players of the Lebanese avant garde.

giovedì 26 gennaio 2017

Composer and keyboardist, Abdou El Omari was born in 1945 in Tafraout, a small town in Morocco situated 180 km south of Agadir. It belongs to a generation of musicians who revolutionized Moroccan music bringing it to wider horizons without altering the soul. From many, under the proposed sounds, he is considered a pioneer of Moroccan psychedelia. His musical career has developed at first fairly convectional. He was a member of several orchestras, including the most important was certainly the Royal Orchestra. He served for a time his own flair to the group "Al Ayady At Dahabiyya" (Golden Hands) of Casablanca before devoting himself to the realization of his original compositions.In 1976 he made his first and only solo album entitled "Nuits d'Ete" published for the record label Disques GAM. The album consists of seven pieces and offers an innovative sound to the Moroccan reality. The keyboard of Abdou El Omari takes on a real journey through the many traditional rhythms creating strange sounds taste spatial traits. To listen carefully it is clear that almost all the samples of what is the musical traditions of Morocco is represented here and manipulated through echoes and various filters.The album (highly sought and hard to find) has become over the decades a real fetish whose prices in the collectors' market have touched astonishing figures.From the album were extracts two 7 "respectively containing the songs" Fatine / Layali Saif "and" Rajaat Laayoun / Hind ".

The solo career Abdou El Omari in fact ran out with this work. His activities in the field of music continued as researcher in the broad field of the Moroccan musical heritage and occasionally collaborated with some actresses and singers which include Laila Ghofran, Fatima Makdadi and Aicha El Waad. The most famous collaboration (and fruitful) still remains the one that occurred in 1977 with Naima Samih. The collaboration of these two artists has spawned two 7 " that have become over time (like his solo album) real collector's items.Remained for many years in the shadows, Abdou El Omari died in 2010 following a long illness. His body was buried at the cemetery Errahma in Casablanca at the presence of friends and family.

In November of 2016 the guys of record label Radio Martiko have reprinted the solo albums of Abdou El Omari. Of this fact I can only be eternally grateful. In reality it is not a completely faithful reprint. On Side B lacks in fact the song Ourika, replaced by the song Zifaf Filfada, belonging to 7 "made with Naima Samih. Even the tracklist of B side has changed slightly.

However, this is a great event, definitely one of the best releases of recent years.

giovedì 19 gennaio 2017

Ramzi’s life trajectory has by no means been ordinary. This Palestinian artist was born in Betlhehem in 1979 and grew up in the Al’ Amari refugee camp in Ramallah, where his family was forced to relocate to, in 1948.

The first intifada (1987/1992), the violence and the occupation greatly marked his childhood and his adolescence. At 16 years old he participated in a music workshop, an experience that changed his life.

From 1996 to 1998 he studies at the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in Ramallah. In 1998 Ramzi received a scholarship to study viola at the National Regional Conservatory of Angers (France) until 2005. Ramzi graduated with a DEM in viola, chamber music. It is also in this conservatory that he encountered other students with whom he created Ensemble Dal’Ouna in 2000, dedicated to both Palestinian music and causes.

Today Ramzi splits his career among many projects. He is concert performer, bandleader of Ensemble Dal’Ouna, musical director of the Palestine National Arabic Music Ensemble, composer and arranger. Oftentimes he performs Western classical music as a soloist as well as with chamber music ensembles and orchestras.

In parallel, Ramzi’s deep engagement with humanity has led him to create the Al Kamandjâti Association in 2005. Al Kamandjâti mission is to bring music education to Palestinian children, in particular, to those who are most vulnerable – the children of the refugee camps.

In 2012 he released an album entitled "Reflections of Palestine" consists of his instrumental compositions.

mercoledì 11 gennaio 2017

Terez Sliman, Yazan Ibraheem along with five other musicians from the Golan Heights : Hassan Nakhleh, Amr Mdah , Shadi Awidat, Rami Nakhleh in addition to Hellanh Khater. met as friends where love was purer than water and where green was not merely a colour. The seven musicians produced songs with indications of both uproar and passion. The songs speak of a HOPE that brings us back to the most beautiful beginnings - LOVE- to life’s blossom – PEOPLE- and to the eyes that LAUGH despite all the sadness of the UNIVERSE.

Almond Blossom, a musical journey, its home is the skies and earth is simply a station

Hawa Dafi is the name of a Syrian band from Majdal Shams, a town located on Occupied Golan Heights. The band consists of 7 elements and proposes a sound that the group defines as Gypsy Rock. It is unquestionably very particular sounds that draw, in equal measure, both from the Eastern tradition and from all the corpus of Western rock music, not forgetting Reggae (perhaps influence of fellow citizens Toot Ard ??) and Jazz.

In 2015 they released their first album titled "Our Story". The album , consisting of 12 tracks , was produced by Samer Jadarat (Palestinian percussionist and producer) and includes both instrumental pieces that sung songs. The drafting of the texts saw the collaboration of Jad Brek , a local poet.

The album is part of a larger project, currently consists of 6 discs, called "Crossing" thought by Samer Jadarat to document the record and the historical period that the Palestinian artists are experiencing.